Bishnoi meets Shah, stalemate on BJP-HJC alliance continues

The stalemate over the alliance between the BJP and Haryana Janhit Congress (HJC) continued even after HJC leader Kuldeep Bishnoi held a meeting with BJP national president Amit Shah at New Delhi on Tuesday.

The stalemate over the alliance between the BJP and Haryana Janhit Congress (HJC) continued even after HJC leader Kuldeep Bishnoi held a meeting with BJP national president Amit Shah at New Delhi on Tuesday.

Bishnoi presented to Shah his point of view on seat-sharing arrangement for the forthcoming assembly elections during the meeting that lasted for about half-an-hour. It was learnt that Bishnoi and Shah had decided to meet again later this week on the issue.

Both the BJP and HJC had been sticking to their positions on the seat-sharing arrangements, refusing to yield ground to each other. The BJP made its intention clear to rewrite the seat-sharing agreement signed in 2011, now giving only 18 seats out of the total 90, while the HJC was adamant to be an equal partner as was envisaged in the original agreement when it was also decided to project HJC leader Bishnoi as the alliance's chief ministerial candidate.

The two partners were to have their leaders as chief minister for two-years-and-a-half each, in turn.

In alliance with the BJP, the HJC had, in April, contested the parliamentary seats of Hisar and Sirsa and lost both, while BJP won seven of the eight seats it contested.

Even HJC leader Kuldeep Bishnoi lost to INLD's Dushyant Chautala from Hisar, while HJC's Sushil Indora lost to Charanjit Rori (INLD) from Sirsa.

In the changed political situation after Lok Sabha polls, the BJP leaders lost no time in objecting to the pre-poll truck with the HJC. Initially, the BJP offered 25 seats to the HJC. The figure later came down to 18 and the BJP also refused to give the chief minister's chair to Bishnoi.

Insisting that it was not fair on part of the BJP to change stand now, HJC leaders held that the HJC had already started election work in all the 90 seats.